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The Last Leaf on the Tree - Jeremy Paxman with Joan Baez

In an in-depth and revealing conversation Joan Baez discusses her music, groundbreaking performances, protests and political achievements with lifelong fan Jeremy Paxman.

In an in-depth and revealing conversation Joan discusses her music, groundbreaking performances and political achievements and her hopes for the future of the world, with lifelong fan Jeremy Paxman. As Jeremy points out, although they are both getting older, the passion has not diminished.

Six decades after becoming a regular on the coffee house scene in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Joan Baez has determined that '2018 will be my last year of formal extended touring.' This follows her 2017 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction and a lifetime of awards and honours for her recordings and human rights work.

Whistle Down The Wind, Joan's first new studio album in a decade, includes material by some of her favourite composers including Tom Waits and Mary Chapin Carpenter amongst others.

Joan sang about freedom and Civil Rights everywhere, from the backs of flatbed trucks in Mississippi to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial at Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King's March on Washington in 1963. She withheld a portion of her income tax to protest military spending in 1964, and participated in the birth of the Free Speech movement at the University of California's Berkeley campus.

The soundtrack for the tumultuous '60s is heard on Joan's remarkably timeless albums and she was famously captured on film with Bob Dylan on his controversial 1965 tour of Britain, as well as his Rolling Thunder Revue in the mid 70s.

In the final decades of the 20th century, Joan was a fixture on Amnesty International's Conspiracy of Hope tour, with U2, Peter Gabriel, Sting and others. Her 1989 concert in Czechoslovakia was cited by President-to-be Vaclav Havel as a tipping point in the Velvet Revolution. She sang in honour of Pete Seeger in Washington, D.C. in 1994.

1 hour

Last on

Mon 26 Mar 2018 22:00

Music Played

  • Joan Baez

    There But For Fortune

    • Joan Baez / 5.
    • Vanguard.
  • Joan Baez

    Last Leaf

    • Whistle Down The Wind.
    • Proper.
    • 007.
  • Joan Baez

    The President Sang Amazing Grace

    • Whistle Down The Wind.
    • Proper.
    • 006.
  • Joan Baez

    Whistle Down The Wind

    • Whistle Down The Wind.
    • Proper.
    • 001.
  • Joan Baez

    God Is God (live)

    • 75th Birthday Celebration.
    • Razor & Tie.
    • 1.
  • Paul Robeson

    The Ballad Of Joe Hill

    • Paul Robeson At Carnegie Hall 9 May 1958.
    • Vanguard.
    • 16.
  • Bob Dylan

    Blowin' In The Wind (Live)

    • The Bootleg Series, Volume 5: Live 1975: The Rolling Thunder Revue CD1.
    • Sony Music Entertainment UK Ltd.
    • 9.
  • Joan Baez

    We Shall Overcome

    • Really The Best CD1.
    • ZYX Music.
    • 10.
  • Joan Baez

    The Great Correction

    • Whistle Down The Wind.
    • Proper.
    • 009.

Broadcast

  • Mon 26 Mar 2018 22:00